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Skipping the Gifts for My Baby's First Christmas

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by Melissa Willets on December 18, 2013

Melissa Willets

About the Author

Melissa Willets is a mom of three girls, one of whom is a
newborn. She writes about pregnancy, parenting, home, health, and beauty. She
loves running and drinking red wine - but never <a href="#">simultaneously</a>.

About the Blog

WhatToExpect.com supports Word of Mom as a place to share stories and highlight the many perspectives and experiences of pregnancy and parenting. However, the opinions expressed in this section are those of individual writers and do not reflect the views of Heidi Murkoff of the What to Expect brand.

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Moms, I have a radical thought to propose: On baby's first Christmas, don't go overboard. Psst. Baby has no idea what Christmas is or that kids are supposed to get presents. Someday she will realize that Christmas is the most exciting day of the year. But until then, why buy a million gifts she couldn't care less about?

Before you write me off as some pathetic Scrooge, I offer that I didn't always feel this way. We spoiled my first daughter like crazy on Christmas morning five years ago despite the fact that she was only a few months old at the time. Indeed, she got more gifts than 10 children needed.

But about halfway through our unwrapping frenzy I figured out that all those presents were more for me than her. She didn't care that I'd spent hours meticulously wrapping each toy or outfit — all she wanted was a bottle and a nap.

Years later, we are about to celebrate our third daughter's first Christmas and I've learned a lot. Instead of buying out the baby aisle of the toy store, I'm adopting a decidedly more realistic approach to gift giving. My five-month-old will get a few gifts on Christmas morning, but things won't be out of control.

Instead, we will wait until a few years from now to spoil her on Christmas. Yep, when she is more interested in presents than fitting her entire fist in her mouth, Santa will bring it. Until then, she can play with the millions of things we bought for my first daughter five years ago!

If this is your baby's first Christmas, what is your approach to gift giving?

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